Folks,
98FM’s weekly sports show “Now That’s What I Call Sport” airs every Sunday morning from 9-10am.
Presented by myself Johnny Lyons, this week’s show broadcast on Sunday February 1st features the following guests :
- Ben Burgess –
Which is more scary – playing in front of 80,000 at Wembley or teaching a bunch of unruly eight year olds in a classroom ?
Now Big Ben knows the answer – when you’ve been booed by hundreds of your own supporters sure what’s the problem in gettin’ a bit of gyp from young fellas?
Ben committed the unthinkable in his life – at the peak of his footballing abilities he gave it all up to start anew in the schoolteaching business.
Of course it isn’t as black and white as all that – the former Republic of Ireland Under 21 international had been crippled with injuries and was sick and tired of the repetitive routine of enduring a painful 90 minutes followed by icing of the knees and plugging away in the gym.
So Ben ditched the football and did his certificates so that he could start teaching.
As he says himself – these days with Google etc - there’s no hiding place in the schoolroom in front of 30 eight year olds, “ excuse me Mr Burgess we were on the internet last night and saw you played at Wembley”.
At least they were the happy memories !
Ben called it quits just a month into a two year contract with Tranmere Rovers.
To be fair to Ben, he had a decent career flitting between the lower leagues and the Championship.
His highpoint arrived in May 2011 when he helped Blackpool clinch a place in the Premier League as he came on as a sub against Cardiff in the Championship play off final at Wembley in front of those 80,000.
And if his falls flat on his face as a teacher, he can always start a career as a singer – he sounds a dead ringer for Take That!
- Chic Charnley –
Guys like Chic you gotta lurve!
First of all there’s the name – I mean Chic what a cracker and that’s not even bringin’ the disco band moniker into it – to be fair I’m not gonna start callin’ the strapping six footer Sheek!
And then there’s the repo – the original bad boy of Scottish football with 17 red cards in his career!
Who else would call his autobiography “Seeing Red”?!
And there’s the infamous incident when – playing with Partick Thistle at the time – two young lads invaded a Thistle training session in Glasgow Park with one of em brandishing a Samurai sword.
Suffice to say Chic took the ruffian out with one punch – hell Chic wasn’t gonna waste a Glasgow Kiss on em!
(I want it on public record that Now Sport does not condone violence of any kind – ehh except when some asshole comes at you with a Samurai sword)!
Anyways, Chic is a Celtic diehard and nearly got to play for his beloved Bhoys in the mid 90’s but the manager at the time Lou Macari was sacked and that was it in terms of playing for Celtic.
So there’s no better guy than Chic to preview the first Old Firm derby between Celtic and Rangers in three years.
We also talk to Sean McDonnell the Development Officer of Pentathlon Ireland ( the Modern version as opposed to the Athletics one!) about the next leg of the Airtricity National Schools Biathlon which takes place on February 7th at the ALSAA Sports Complex.
Competition;
Loadsa Celtic jerseys to giveaway.
Thanks,
Johnny.
